Just over a month ago, Matsushita and Olympus announced Micro Four Thirds, a new standard for interchangeable lens cameras. In case you've missed it, we wrote about it here.

Panasonic has just launched the Lumix DMC-G1, the world's first Micro Four Thirds camera. It has a 12 megapixel Live MOS sensor, but unlike regular dSLR cameras, it has no mirror and prism, i.e., no optical viewfinder. No surprise that Panasonic went for a 3-inch, 1.4 million pixel screen, then. Nevertheless, we'll miss the good old optical viewfinder.



On the upside, the DMC-G1 ends up just 45mm thick and weighs a mere 385 grams, although it climbs to 630 with lens, memory card and battery. Impressive numbers for an interchangeable lens camera. The lens uses Panasonic's acclaimed MEGA OIS image stabilization system, and lenses for Micro Four Thirds, let's call them MFT cameras, should end up a bit cheaper.

Crammed inside the body you'll find Venus Engine HD image processor with intelligent ISO, AF tracking, face detection and a bunch of other goodies. It has HDMI, which is a very welcomed feature, and it uses a supersonic wave filter to keep its guts clean.

If you were expecting this baby to be an inexpensive alternative to regular SLR cameras, think again. It's expected to go on sale in October and should retail for around $750 in Japan.

DPreview already has a preview of the new camera and it makes for quite an interesting read. Check it out here.